Tax write offs for production have to be done the year its spent?

[Azmyth]

If a film was in production from 2009-2011 and you made expenses in all of those years towards it.. I'm guessing in order to write them off you must do so in the years during which said money was spent? In other words I can't write off things unless they were done the year I'm filing in correct?

 

[Paul Hudson]

If you failed to claim a deduction one year you can file an amended return. However, you cannot claim a deduction from this year on last years taxes.

 

[kwoff]

You should really talk to an accountant or lawyer about this. Your question can't be answered without many more details than you've provided, and even if it could, the right source for an answer would not be an anonymous post to a web site, even one as informative as DVXUser.

 

[Chris Adler]

The right source for the answer is anyone who knows, really.

That kind of reply kinda bugs me because some people ask some really simple questions where 99.9% of the time the answer is straight forward, yet the standard response here is usually to go pay big bucks and talk to a lawyer. Of course nobody wants to be personally responsible if their advice isn't exactly right, but is that going to happen here?

There are lots of tasks filmmakers need to complete that aren't rocket science. For instance setting up a production company. I just did that, myself. Didn't consult with a lawyer. I read some books and did some research. Did it all online since my state makes it super-simple to do. Less than an hour later I had myself an LLC. Sure, to even be MORE confident that what I did was the perfect way to do it I could consult with a lawyer, accountants, and who probably others as well, but most of the time it will just cost more and they'll tell me everything's okay.

Paul's answer is right 99.999% of the time. Those are good enough odds for me.